The present invention relates to a connecting device and in particular to a connecting device by which an electric device is electrically connected to another electric device.
A conventional connecting device which is shown in FIG. 13 includes a first housing 2 having a pair of parallely spaced male terminals 1 (only one is shown), and a second housing 4 having a pair of parallely spaced female terminals 3 (only one is shown). The first housing 2 is detachably coupled to the second housing 4 in such a manner that each of the male terminals 1 is fitted in the corresponding female terminal 3. The first housing 2 is provided therein with a pair of parallely spaced passages 2a (only one is shown) in which the male terminals 1 are secured. Similarly, the second housing 4 is provided therein a pair of parallely spaced passages 4a (only one is shown) in which the female terminals 3 are secured. Each of the passage 2a and each of the passage 4a are extended throughout the first housing 2 and the second housing 4, respectively.
The foregoing connecting device sometimes may not be used in specific facilities or equipment. In particular, a unit bath room which is so constructed as to install a bath tub and a sanitary device in a common container or unit is becoming widely used. When, as the sanitary device, an electrically operated sanitary device is used which has a toilet bowl and an electrically operated washing apparatus for the washing of a portion (the anus and/or the crotch), the connecting device employed in the electrically operated washing apparatus should be protected from high humidity within the container or unit bath room. The reason is that the high humidity will bring condensation in the neighbourhood of each of the housing 2 and 4, which may be the cause of poor insulation, short circuit or electric leakage. In the light of the current reliability of the conventional connecting device, no conventional connecting device is qualified for being employed in the foregoing sanitary device. Thus, at present, the the sanitary device which is commercially available to be installed in the unit bath room is not provided with the electrically operated washing apparatus. In order to make the conventional connecting device to increase the reliability thereof against humidity, synthetic resin may be supplied into the passages 2a and 4a for the prevention of condensation in the housings 2 and 4. Such an idea, though it is excellent in a sense, is impractical due to the fact that one of the housing then can't be separated from the other housing.